Bush's new slogan: 'Jeb can fix it'

Monday, November 02, 2015 - 01:29

Slumping in the polls, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush adopts a new slogan as he launches an energetic attack against the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

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ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)
STORY: Battered by weeks of negative headlines, Republican Jeb Bush launched a campaign reboot on Monday (November 2) with a "Jeb Can Fix It" tour, to present himself as a can-do conservative who will fight what he called a "new age of cynicism" that has seeped into the 2016 presidential race.
The retooling of his struggling campaign coincides with the release of an e-book that reveals a more personal side to a 2016 candidate who has struggled on the public stage.
Bush's dismal performance at a debate of Republican presidential candidates last week in Colorado was an added burden to a candidate once considered the favorite for the nomination and now suffering drooping poll numbers and fund-raising.
Hoping to begin a political comeback in Tampa on Monday, Bush presented himself as a problem-solving politician who can repeat the success he says he had as Florida's governor in the presidency.
"We need a president who fixes America's standing abroad. I can fix it. After seven years of massive deficits, historic debt, and a president who vetoes defense spending because he wants more reckless spending, we need a president who fixes our budgetary mess. I can fix it. I know I can fix it because I've done it," he said.
Bush also played down the importance of last week's debate.
"As you may have heard last week I was in Colorado for the third republican debate. If you watched the debate you probably came away thinking that the election's about soundbites, or fantasy football, or which candidate can interrupt the loudest. I'm here to tell you it is not. This election is not about a set of personalities, it's about a set of principles," he said.
In his campaign speech, Bush sought to contrast himself with Obama, who he portrayed as a divisive, cynical leader.
"So the choice we face is whether we summon the courage to give rise to a new era of possibility or indulge this new age of cynicism. For all his promise, perhaps President Obama's greatest accomplishment is that of creating competing pessimisms. Members of his own party are left explaining how two percent growth, massive debt, and increasing global isolation are really the best that we can do. They speak in delusional terms about containing ISIS, about trusting the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism, about how the presence of Russian soldiers on Syrian soil doesn't underscore the President's empty words and total inaction. It's not working. And all President Obama has left is the politics of divide and conquer," he said.
Bush also said Hillary Clinton, who was criticized even by some Democrats for calling Republicans her "enemies", would continue what he portrayed as Obama's partisan approach.
"If Secretary Clinton has her way the next four years will be like the last eight - gridlock, grievance, division, demonization. This is the only way they know how to win. On the issue of immigration they've written a script for Republicans filled with grievance and resentment. Frankly the last thing they want is a Republican challenger who takes them out of their comfort zone of forced indignation and PC platitudes. But let me be clear, I'm not stepping into the angry agitator that they've created for us because it's not what's in my heart. And it is not true to the conservative cause. And in the end that role is just a bit part in another story of another conservative loss and another liberal victory. That's their plan, and I'm not going to go along with it," he said.
Bush continues to lag far behind the polls behind the two Republican front-runners, non-politicians Donald Trump and Ben Carson, and has fallen behind a resurgent Marco Rubio the Florida Senator and his one time protégé.

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